


Little Moments in Between: A Brief Interlude

by nostalgicatsea



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 14:19:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14672885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nostalgicatsea/pseuds/nostalgicatsea
Summary: In the time it took the train to come, Tony allowed himself to indulge in what ifs. He dreamed about what it would be like to go unrecognized in the city, to have a normal life with Steve.





	Little Moments in Between: A Brief Interlude

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mrsgingles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsgingles/gifts).



> Inspired by [this soft little moment](http://mrsgingles.tumblr.com/post/162801685915/waiting-for-the-last-train-home) mrsgingles captured in her art. This is many months overdue, but I hope you enjoy it, Alicja.

Sometimes Tony wondered what it would be like to be normal. 

He imagined it would be something like this.

It was a little past midnight on a weekday, and the platform was nearly empty save for a few stragglers trying to get home. They had been waiting long enough that Tony was dead on his feet, the exhaustion from a hectic workday and the long nighttime stroll finally catching up with him. He wanted nothing more than to go home and curl up in bed. 

Steve stroked his cheek with his thumb as if he could hear his thoughts, and if Tony nestled closer to him, well, no one seemed to know who they were or if they did, they didn’t give a damn. They were either too tired or too polite to interrupt them.

“I’m sorry,” Steve mumbled guiltily into his hair. 

“Mm?” 

“You're tired. We should’ve taken a cab back. We would’ve gotten to the tower by now.” 

“’s fine,” he said even though they had been waiting for over thirty minutes because of a delay and scheduled work. _Fuck the MTA_ , he thought drowsily, and then _Steve’s right, we should get out and call an Uber_ , but he was invested. They had spent the last of their change, and they were going to see it through even if the station stunk like shit and only moments before, he had seen a fat rat clamber up the stairs from the tracks to the end of the platform before scampering back down again, abandoning the forlorn bag of chips that someone had dropped after discovering it only held crumbs. 

He thought of how Steve had insisted that they take the train back and how he had doodled on his Metrocard with a blue ballpoint pen he had in his jacket pocket ten minutes into their wait before handing it to him. 

“A souvenir,” Steve had teased, eyes sparkling with mirth. In a way, they were both tourists in their own city; New York wasn’t the same place either of them grew up in. It was nice, having dates like this. They got to explore the city together and make their own version of it. His parents’ mansion uptown lay dormant and abandoned, nothing more than a landmark that people occasionally took photos in front of, and there was a museum downtown dedicated to the history and preservation of tenements like the ones that his father and Steve had grown up in. But now the Upper East Side belonged to their first date, an after-hours visit to the Met, and their first kiss, under the arches of the Bethesda Terrace bathed in silvery moonlight. The Lower East Side belonged to dinners at their favorite French restaurant, cozy and tucked away like a charming neighborhood secret, and a long conversation about classic films in Seward Park after a screening at the Metrograph on a frigid January morning.

New York belonged to them.

Tony touched his pocket to make sure that the card was still there before folding into Steve, sliding his hand across Steve’s side and then wrapping his arms fully around him. Steve was big and comfortingly sturdy under him.

Steve dropped a kiss on his forehead before returning his embrace. They stayed like that, unmoving, Steve resting his cheek on top of his head, no one paying them any attention.

This was the most intimate they had ever been in public and the longest.

He wished they could stay like this forever.

If no one knew who they were, if they had just been Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, not Iron Man and Captain America…but that was their calling and they loved that about each other.

If he didn’t have his father’s legacy then, he thought, if he weren’t the face of his company and he hadn’t spent so much time shoving himself into the spotlight and landing on the front pages of unsavory tabloids for decades, they could do things like this all the time. They could go out more often. They wouldn’t have to settle for most of their dates being movie nights on the couch and dinners at home. They would be able to walk the streets without a care in the world, not having to worry about being followed or interrupted. No one would bother them, and they could just be themselves. 

He could hold Steve’s hand and kiss him whenever he wanted without having it turn into a spectacle, without the world weighing in on something that belonged to just the two of them. 

Tony could hear the train clattering down the tracks on the other side of the platform in the opposite direction and kept his eyes closed. He wanted the moment to last.

“The next one,” Steve promised, and Tony hummed a sleepy reply.

He wouldn’t mind giving it all up if he could have this forever, but if this was all he had, little moments here and there, that was okay too. The important thing was that he had Steve and Steve had him.


End file.
